Hours of Knowing You
by ScribeOfRhapsody
Summary: She had a house. An adorable one. With a little porch. And a treehouse in the yard. And tire swing. Yeah, no, this wasn't real. This was Biggs' idea of a joke or something. Maybe a hallucination. (Part 8 of the Hours series. Amnesia fic.)


**Prompt fill for the lovely ScribeOfReaper, who wanted an Hours addition with an amnesiac Aranea snd some Highspecs fluff. **

**Some day this AU will actually end, but that is not this day because my friends keep nudging me about it. XD**

* * *

"Commodore Scientia?"

"Aranea, can you hear me?"

Aranea was confused for a couple of reasons at the moment. One was that she had no idea how she'd ended up unconscious. Total blank there. Two was that she was being addressed by a name that was half definitely not hers.

Why the hell was someone trying to get her attention with this… _Scientia_ business? That sure wasn't an alias she'd ever come up with.

Cringing, Aranea dragged her eyes open. She was not surprised to find herself in medical care. She was surprised to find herself in such _nice_ medical care.

Huh. Perks of working for the Empire, she guessed. If she'd known this kind of care was provided, she wouldn't have been so wary about working for them when they'd first made their offer–

Wait.

Aranea blinked very slowly at the people in front of her.

One – the man that had addressed her by that other name – was dressed like a normal nurse. But the woman in front of him… That… was a Lucian Glaive coat.

"Oh, thank Shiva," the woman said, seeming genuinely happy. "Welcome back."

"…Thanks," Aranea said flatly, wondering why she wasn't handcuffed to something. Had she been captured or something? She couldn't remember a thing after the card game Biggs had started up last night. If that had been last night.

"Do you know what day it is?" The woman pulled out a phone and started typing out some message.

Aranea thought about that. "…Nope."

The doctor… medic… woman frowned but nodded. "You suffered a pretty bad blow to the head. I expect your memory is going to be a little hazy for a bit, but you can probably head home in a bit as long you take it easy."

Home? Where the hell was home? This had to be a mission. She was definitely undercover or something. A long-term spying mission for the Empire?

…Nah. No way. That wasn't her style at all. She wouldn't have accepted a mission like that.

Her confusion did not ebb in the slightest when Glaive-doctor-woman told her she'd be the one driving her home.

That wasn't how hospitals worked. Now, she'd never been in a Lucian one, but she was pretty sure that the doctor personally driving a patient home wasn't a thing anywhere.

Yet drive her home the glaive-woman did.

"Eques showed up in town while you were out," the Glaive said cheerfully as they pulled out of the parking garage. "He was going to come see you, but I told him to stay put since I was bringing you home anyway. He'll probably drop by the house soon."

Aranea would have spent more time wondering who that person was had a decent chunk of the city not into view right then.

What in the… what happened to this place? This wasn't right. It looked like huge portions of the city were under construction and had been for a while.

Had there been an attack on the city itself? And if there had, when had it be–

There was no wall.

Again, what the hell?

Six, she was confused, but she really didn't want to give this Glaive an idea of how clueless she actually was, so she kept quiet.

And then she was dropped off at her house.

She had a house. An adorable one. With a little porch. And a treehouse in the yard. And tire swing.

Yeah, no, this wasn't real. This was Biggs' idea of a joke or something. Maybe a hallucination.

But the glaive had left her here. Where else was she supposed to go?

Growing in frustration under her breath, Aranea made for the door.

…It did seem familiar.

The smell. She definitely knew that smell. It was calming, but she couldn't even label it as anything specific. It was just a… certain mess.

She turned the doorknob, pushing into the home.

There was nothing she could see that looked like _her_.

Well. The red theme was her, but everything it was on… Everything was orderly, crisp, and clean… but used. Well taken care of, but it had definitely seen more than a few years of ownership. And she felt like she knew all of it.

She made her way over to the table, delicately tracing a finger across one of the largest gashes in the polished wood.

And then she screamed.

"_Six,_ I'm old!" Aranea stepped away from the offending reflection on the shiny tabletop, running her hand over her face.

How many of her memories was she missing?

Wha… She was like fifty or _older_.

She flinched again as the door was opened behind her, and she whipped around, hand stretched out for her weapon.

…Which wasn't there.

Shit, where was her weapon? And who was–

A white-haired boy who looked about the age she _should _have been pushed through the door, smiling at her. "Mum! How are you feeling?"

Aranea would have done a double take, but she couldn't take her eyes off the guy in the first place. It wasn't just his hair and face – he literally looked like the male version of herself. The relation was undeniable.

She had a _kid._ One that was as old as she felt and… had a really posh accent.

"…Like I need a rundown on the last twenty to thirty years," she answered honestly.

She actually felt bad about the started pain on his face as she quickly blurted out that she had no recollection of… anything around here.

He paused, then sprang into action, gently taking her hand. "All right, I think you should sit down." He tugged her into another room and directed her into sitting on a couch. "I am going to make a few calls." He glanced around for a moment before he nabbed a framed photo off of the coffee table in front of her. "Here, hopefully this will jog something."

He was already pulling out his phone and strolling out of the room before she had a chance to reply.

She scowled, looking down at the photo.

Sweet Shiva, she had a daughter too? Hard to deny the resemblance there either, though daughter clearly had taken after her… father more than the boy had.

Father. As in… someone she'd raised a family with.

How? How had this happened? What man had she met where this kind of life was even an option?

The sound of the door opening again caught Aranea's attention. She couldn't see into the other room from where she was, but she could hear well enough.

"Papa. You were quick…"

"I was already on the way over. Where is she?"

Ah. Well that explained her kid's accent.

Aranea placed the photograph back on the table as the two men rounded the corner into the living room.

…Hot damn. She'd hit the jackpot. While this guy looked a little old for the age she still felt, he actually looked decent bit younger than the age she actually was.

What in the hell? Had she woken up in some alternate universe? Insomnia without a wall? A hot younger husband? Kids? A sweet little house?

Something had to have drastically changed in her lifestyle, that was for certain.

"Aranea…" Her… _husband_ crossed the room, kneeling in front of her with such caring and genuine expression that Aranea felt uncomfortable being the subject of so much affection. She wasn't the woman he knew right now.

He reached up, softly smoothing down a few strands of hair. "You don't recall what happened?"

She resisted the urge to pull away from the touch. Despite not knowing his face, he was still familiar. "…Nope."

A frown pinched his brown, deepening the wrinkle there. It looked like he did that a lot. "Can you tell me the last thing that is clear to you?"

"A card game Biggs set up. I don't know if you know who he is, but…" she trailed off, noticing slight flinch he gave at Biggs' name. Maybe she should ask some questions of her own. "Okay, how long have we known each other? How did we meet?"

Their… _son_ made noise. "Oh, that's going to be fun to explanation…"

Her husband rolled his eyes just slightly. Almost like he was used to being teased about the topic. "Eques, would you give us a moment and call your sister?"

"Sure." He nodded, stepping out again.

Eques, huh? That sounded very… Lucian. Nice, though.

"So?" She pressed. "How long and how in general?"

"Well…" He cleared his throat. "I'm afraid that's a bit of a long story, but summarized… almost thirty years ago, the Empire attempted to have you kidnap me for the information I possessed pertaining to the Lucian throne."

…Honestly, that actually sounded more like her. Except…

"I don't do kidnappings."

He chuckled. "Indeed. A rather key reason on why the mission failed."

She shook her head. "I have so many questions right now."

"I know…" he said, voice sounding a bit strained. "This all must be quite overwhelming and unlikely-seeming given your life prior to our meeting."

Six… This must have been so painful to him. She had no idea when they'd gotten married, but they'd apparently known each other for almost thirty years. It had to be hard for him to talk to her like this.

"Well, you're gonna have to start filling me in here."

He took one of her hands in his own. "Of course. The hour is growing late. A talk over dinner might be in order. I'll prepare supper while Eques makes his call, and then we can sit down with him and Viola."

Viola. Okay. Eques, Viola, and…

"Sounds good." Now, how to delicately ask this. "So, do I get to know your name before our first dinner date… which is going to have our children present."

He didn't splutter. He didn't even blink. He just gave her a smile that spoke volumes of fondness, like… like he was totally used to her sense of humor.

…Holy chocobos, they _were _married.

"Ignis." He shifted his grip on her hand to shake it instead of holding it. "Ignis Scientia."

Well, if that wasn't the epitome of a Lucian name, she didn't know what was.

"Then I guess I'm Aranea Scientia."

He chuckled again, and she found herself liking the sound. "That you are."

It was a rough while, but, looking back now that her memories had returned, she was actually thankful for it.

After all, how many people got to say they had a second first date with their spouse? Well, not her, because they'd never gotten a first the original time. But _ha_ – she did end up getting one in the long run, even if it was about thirty years too late.

She wasn't even sure why she was surprised. They never did anything normal in their entire romance aside from moving into that dumb little house Noctis had made for them.

Why was this any different?

—


End file.
